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Sea of Thieves - Previews
- Thread starter Theorry
- Start date
Having a bathroom with a line of sight to the box and TV is a luxury I'm not entirely positive I want to give up.
A lot of people would get sea sick. But hopefully they do it, the game is built around the kind of natural input that makes VR games great.
Still don't think devs have figured out FPS movement in VR yet.
I would imagine it's only your spawn point when you and your crew first log into the server. So as long as everyone isn't logging into the server at once their shouldn't be much of a problem.
Also the matching making system works by proximity.They'll probably spawn players into instances where no one is near the hideout (or even empty instances), then merge with other instances as neccisary.
Why wait a week when you can use free 14 day of GamePass trial and see for yourself?
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Good thing there's gamepass.
You can do the 14 day free trial, see if it keeps your attention. You can pay whatever it is a month to see if it keeps up after.
I might have to play it on xbox and not PC, so I can stream it to my laptop when I need to go take a poop.
There is a theme in this thread of the game's fans dismissing critics by simply telling them that they don't get it or that 'it's not that kind of game' whenever flaws get pointed out. No-one is asking for combat to become a larger part of Sea of Thieves than it already is, but this is a game that relies heavily on combat mechanics. Not to the extent a first person shooter does, obviously, but to a similar extent that many open world games rely on their combat. Between PvP, dealing with skeletons on islands, the Order of Souls' bounty quests, and the skeleton forts, player combat through guns and swords is undeniably a core area of the game, probably only second to sailing in its importance to the overall experience. Given that one expects combat mechanics that feel really good, even if they are limited compared to those in games that focus on combat first and foremost. Unfortunately the mechanics aren't even close. The gunplay is seriously below par, lacking things as basic as aim assist and as critical as headshots. The cutlass is worse still, borderline unpleasant to handle due to the lack of responsiveness and clunkiness apparent in every facet of the swordplay mechanics. You're not wrong to say that people will be disappointed if they pick up this game for combat, but that isn't some consequence of Rare's design philosophy or the type of game they're making, it's plainly and simply that the mechanics, despite their importance, don't come up to scratch. What you can't do is wave it away by saying the game isn't combat focused - it's one of the core parts of the game.
I feel like the way they handled combat adds to the charm of the game to be honest. It adds to that level of equality.
I found loads of great people just by jumping into random matchmaking. You see what works, after a two hour fun session you exchange friendships and then you're set for the future. Or use Looking for Group.
You'll need Xbox Live Gold to play this online on your Xbox. Don't need it on PC.
Great post and agreed 100%. I actually wish people were far more critical on the combat during the betas so rare could take a look at improving it. I just don't understand why the aspect of the game is so below everything else.
Thanks, figures. Guess I'll be selling my copy and skipping this. Bummed I didn't think about that until now. Really wanted to play a pirate game but not giving them more money on top of the game cost to do it.
Maybe I can look into the game pass trial thing just to try it. Really annoying.
FYI - Getting XGP and a gold sub is about the price of the game itself.
Or he could still use his preorder to play the game in 90% of the PC's available in the world, even if on cursed mode only, non? Ain't SoT play anywhere? I'm assuming he does have a PC because being so strongly against paying subscriptions in 2018 makes me think he shifted to PC gaming already
And this...
So many cheap options to play the game that if you really want to there's no excuse really...
Play Anywhere only works for digital version of games though.
Ah, youre right. Missed the part where he said he would sell it, thought it was a digital preorder. Bummer then
Well i definitely didn't say it couldn't be improved because i did say that and you have been echoing that "no one can critique the game" as much as anyone. You ask for aim assist, is that necessary? No. It's not. I do agree that swordplay could be improved. But i also stated that i read, not come up with it on my own, that they had philosophies around combat.The whole game is focused more (not totally) around soft skills than hard skills. Combat is a more hard skill, not saying you can't get better at it, but having some of thing you are asking for, namely the aim assist kind of goes against that philosophy that I read.
Yes combat is a big part of the game but how you approach it seems different than other games. But i still say that they can improve it, but i don't think that they need to do things just because other games have it.
This. Game Pass and Gold Sub and you're good if that's about your budget. One of the (minor) reasons i'll be playing on PC while the wife is on the Xbox One.
I think combat plays pretty much exactly how they envisioned it. (all my guess here) I feel like they've intentionally made the combat a bit "whimsical" and inaccurate. It really fits the aesthetic, casual group play and inviting experience they seemed to have been going for. The combat system seems inclusive not exclusive if that makes any sense.
Case in point... my wife, who loves Overwatch isn't very skilled at FPSs and can get frustrated or feel like she's letting her team down. In SoT that feeling just isn't there and it's pure enjoyment as everyone's hopping around, missing shots, and swinging their cutlasses wildly... just as she is :)
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Similarly my 5 year old son and my old buddies from college who don't really game anymore are beyond excited for this game. No long hours of practice or lightning quick reflexes required like in competitive FPS or Battle Royale games. Just pick a game night, and be a pirate. Everything is generally intuitive and nobody can really let your team down, even if they aren't any good at all.
the lack of aim assists when shooting is one of this game's strong suits. making it easier to land shots would be terrible imo. i actually wish they'd go a step further and go with a physics based projectile system so that the skill and charm of cannon fights would carry over to the gunplay as well.
The lack of a headshot multiplier probably boils down to normalized hitboxes
deeper gunplay, however, have the effect of highlighting the lack of nuance with the sword play. aim assist is jacked up to 10, and it often feels more like a battle of attrition. i get that the idea is that at close range, the sword should be ideal, but that doesn't mean using one shouldn't be more interesting.
The lack of a headshot multiplier probably boils down to normalized hitboxes
deeper gunplay, however, have the effect of highlighting the lack of nuance with the sword play. aim assist is jacked up to 10, and it often feels more like a battle of attrition. i get that the idea is that at close range, the sword should be ideal, but that doesn't mean using one shouldn't be more interesting.
Exactly. It's so very refreshing. I think this is exactly why SoT could end up being a gigantic hit for MS and Rare. If they keep the content consistently pouring in (as they've said they plan to) it's going to blow up. It's a game MADE for streaming as well and it's beta premier showed that on Twitch and Mixer. Everyone, from casual gamer to professional streamer will create these emergent stories that (currently) no other multiplayer game can provoke. I'm super excited to see how this does and i expect to play a ton of it with the spouse and friends.
It's maddening that so many people come out to defend it. All I can say is, if Sea of Thieves beta presented more typical combat mechanics, nobody would be arguing for it to transform into the status quo. There's some amazing mental gymnastics going on over this.
You ask whether aim assist is necessary... necessary for what?
Necessary for the game to be playable? Obviously not.
Necessary for the gunplay to feel good on console? Arguably.
Necessary for fairness in crossplay? Undeniably.
There is nothing wrong with Rare striving to do things differently, in many respects Sea of Thieves is an example of the benefits of daring to be different, but in combat their deviations from the norm aren't remotely successful. I think in the end, as a game designer, you have to justify the deviations. If you're going to not bother implementing aim assist, something almost every console game with any kind of aiming mechanic implements, you need a damned good reason why your game doesn't need it. Sea of Thieves has the precise opposite: an extremely good reason why it does need aim assist - to bring about a modicum of balance to crossplay. When it comes to headshot/critical hit mechanics, a mainstay of literally every game with guns I can think of, the same applies. Why does the game benefit from not including a feature that has been proven again, and again, and again, and again, to make combat more satisfying? Maybe Rare do have explanations for these decisions, but they certainly aren't apparent from the game.
Please find whatever it is you read that leads you to believe aim assist is against Rare's philosophy for the game, I would very much like to read it. I keep considering possible reasons in my mind but I simply can't come up with one that makes sense. There is a blatant contradiction from the accessibility Rare have clearly worked so hard to ensure across the game and the lack of aim assist. In not implementing aim assist in a console game, Rare has very little company. The only popular contemporary example is Rainbow Six Siege, a hardcore tactical FPS, about as opposite Sea of Thieves as you could possibly get.
Honestly? I give Rare more credit than envisioning combat like this.
You say that the combat is whimsical, that it fits the aesthetic, that its casual, inviting and inclusive. I don't really agree. It's just kind of simple and shallow. I particularly disagree with the idea that it's whimsical, a descriptor that far better fits Overwatch.
Aside from everything else, I fear you have got a false impression about the combat due to the beta, though I must be wary of the NDA. Rare have been clear that the skeletons were introduced to the game to give threat to the world. They are not intended to offer, as in the beta, no threat whatsoever. Come the full release it will matter that you hit your shots and time your sword strikes and blocks, and particularly when it comes to content like the Order of Souls trading company bounties and the Skeleton Fortresses, combat is meant to be the core challenge. Even just exploring islands normally, say, when hunting for treasure, will likely become more dangerous than it was in the beta. Sea of Thieves is intended to be a dangerous world where you never feel safe. In the beta only PvP really highlighted that, but it's not ultimately intended to be this easy game where you can be just happily mess around without consequence all the time.
If combat really was a small part of the game the lack of quality in the combat mechanics would be far easier to overlook, but it's actually a pretty large chunk of the game and it's just not fun relative to the other parts of the game.
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Oh i tried two times to give away constructive criticism on the closed Alpha forums but some fans just threw that typical "its a alpha" excuse into the mix and all was fine. All people did was praising the game even during the over a year Alpha phase so im not really shocked why nothing has changing on the core gameplay mechanics.
Without complaints and criticism, you wont see the need for change.
I criticised the game a lot in the Alpha Surveys too. But i guess the folks who where giving away proper feedback were the very minority.
And now we are near launch and sadly all that happened was adding more stuff to the game instead of improving and redesigning stuff.
To be fair, we have no idea what the update road map is and how the final builds play. That being said, the melee was the most disappointing thing to me in the beta.
I thought the beta and alpha were basically the full game?
Where's all this stuff they've added?
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Big summary of all the info we got. Added also to the OP.
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Progression
Hideout
Skeleton Fort Raids
Ship customization
Items
Pets
http://crewofthieves.com/news-en/sea-of-thieves-february-13th-news-summary/
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Progression
- Players will be able to share their unlocked voyages
- Gold and experience is shared amongst the crew
- Crew bond is a core part
- Remove barriers that stop players from being able to play together
- We have a game about using tools, showing off your reputation, choosing to show off your progress by how you're dressed and the title you use
- The voyages you put on the table will cosmetically look better to represent its rewards
- Getting the "Legend" status is a long-term goal and requires you to progress a lot with trading companies and other NPCs
- Even very dedicated players will only reach that status weeks after launch and will, therefore, get some fame in the community
- Reaching "Legend" status is the endgame for launch, but only the start for the future content
- Legends will, of course, get access to special titles, outfits and customization options
- Hints towards a fourth trading company
- Unlocking new songs will be related to Progression
Hideout
- After you reached "legend" status you will get access/a key to a special Hideout
- The exact location of the hideout is currently unknown to us
- From the Hideout NPCs, you will get access to high-tier quests and rewards
- You will be able to get those quests in the "Tavern of Legends", which is situated in the Hideout. Ghosts of the E3 2016 characters make an appearance there
- You will be able to share access to the Hideout with other players in your crew, just as you will be able to share the special voyages with them
- By talking to the ghosts you will hear hints towards the new trading company and future content
- Inside the Captains Cabin of the ship in the background is the Pirate Lord who sells legendary voyages
- These voyages are Sea of Thieves take on public events or "if Sea of Thieves did Raid Content" (Skeleton Forts?)
- This new system will be introduced with a big update a few months after launch
- Legendary Players will get access to a new ship that allows for unique forms of customization
- Others will be able to recognize your achievements by simply looking at your ship from a distance
- Pirate Legends will be able to ascend to Captains
- This is where Rare will shift the focus from the personal Legends to the Crew Legends, allowing groups of players to become feared on the high seas, adding in new systems for dedicated teams
- Once you have your own ship you won't start at the taverns anymore, but in your hideout
- You will be able to explode out of the hideout with your ship like Batman
- Currently, there are 3 biomes in the world: Shores of Plenty, Ancient Isles, and The Wilds – we don't mark them on the map – but one's more ancient civilization, one's more Maldivian white sands, one's more dark and oppressive
- Beyond launch, we're going to expand the size of the map, as we grow. We'll look at increasing ship numbers per world, too
- New islands can appear in our sea, islands can be destroyed, and what's on the islands will change over time, too
- Something like a curse might get released and change the world
- For now, the closed beta map size will also be the launch map size, although stuff like reefs might get added and changed
- No safe zones. Not even if Reddit really wants them
- Death will be punishing without being too frustrating or discouraging
- You won't lose your accrued gold, anything you purchased, your voyages or your reputation when you die
- New threats at sea and on land are coming, although possibly not already at launch
- However, more things in the sea and "stuff" on the islands will be in at launch
- Playing music and drinking grog doesn't buff you in any way, it exists for fun moments with your crew
- Rare has prototyped alliances and they might be supported in the game too (We assume this is about the clans/fleets that have already formed around the game)
- There will be more loot aside from chests, like treasure artifacts
- No PvE only areas
- There will most likely be more ships to choose from in the future
Skeleton Fort Raids
- Gigantic Skull cloud will sometimes appear above the forts, visible for every player from a very large distance
- Swarming with powerful skeletons
- Once you kill the Outpost skeleton boss he drops a key that players can pick up and fight over
- The player with the key can open the forts vault full of treasure
- The Forts should serve as an opportunity for players that are looking for PvP and huge treasure hauls
- There will be different animals, but at launch, only pigs, snakes and chicken will have a gameplay effect
- Pigs need feeding to stay alive
- Snakes poison you and can be charmed with music
- Chickens will make loud noises which might alert other crews of their presence
- Animals can drown, get hit by lightning and even blow up
- Snakes could be used as makeshift traps for boarding crews
- New apparel will just get added to the game when it's done, no need to wait for the next "big patch"
- When you first start the game you will be presented with a wheel of 8 randomly generated characters to choose from. You can reroll them as often as you like, but once you choose one it becomes bound to your Microsoft account and can't be rerolled again.
- The idea is that no two pirates will look exactly the same
- There will be no body customization sliders, but you will be able to change things like hairstyles, beards, peg legs, hooks, and more transitory cosmetic options
- Hitboxes are normalized, so smaller characters have no advantages over bigger ones
Ship customization
- You will only be able to change your ship at an outpost (shipwright?), your ship's loadout will be fixed during your adventures
- Players can buy cosmetic upgrades – figureheads, sail designs, and specific hulls – that they keep forever, in the same way as clothing or equipment
- They can be applied to any boat, meaning each time you play, you and your crew can decide on the look of the ship
- The more concrete form of "ship ownership" will be the Ship Captaincy mentioned above
- Timed events will be a regular thing from launch on
- There will be fun and time-limited quests that will give you exclusive stuff as reward
- These events and quests will still always follow the Sea of Thieves lore
- They have lots of possibilities for small events, for example, increase frequency of sharks for a day, add more vicious storms or raising the tides temporarily
- These events might sound like small changes, but if all voyages point to the same region for the day the game will feel different from usual, which is better than no variation at all
Items
- Shouting trumpet: Will allow you to contact ships that are too far away for proximity voice chat
- White flag to signal surrender and other sorts of signs
- Messages in Bottles
- 100% in the game at launch
- It's a random world encounter and can't be actively triggered by the players
- The fight with the Kraken will be different each time thanks to its scale and complexity
- It can: Attack multiple ships at once, pick player up, ingest players, slam them in the water, dunk them under water, throw them across the map, wrap your ship, punch holes in your ship, rock your ship, spray ink
- You can fight the tentacles so they release you
- It will be an epic and memorable experience each time, designed to be replayable
- There will be special rewards for killing the Kraken
- Microtransactions will only be implemented to the game in the first major update approximately 3 months after launch
- Launch should be focused on the game and the transition to the game as a service and the needed funding for that will happen with that update
- Microtransactions won't affect power or progression in any way
- Lootboxes won't be in the game
- Bought items should be fun, social and have an emotional value, but no functional value
- No intent to charge for content updates (No season pass or DLC, updates will always be free)
- Fun Potions might also be an MTX option (Potion that makes you look old for example)
- Some of the Microtransaction things will also have an option to be earned through in-game currency
Pets
- Buying pets will be the first thing that you will be able to spend money on
- Parrot, Cat, and Monkey confirmed so far
- You will be able to fire them out of cannons
- It will fit the style of the game and be more fun and silly than cruel
- If you buy a pet other people will be able to mess around with and experience it, too
- So if you have a parrot, you will be able to pick it up and run around with it, but someone else can also pick it up and then drown with it (no worries it will come back to you)
- First significant update will be around 3 months after launch
- Updates will service all kinds of players, whether you are a hardcore gamer or a casual
- New quest types, new trading companies and other gameplay possibilities like fishing will get added to the game over time
- Smaller additions will just be put into the game without having to wait to get released as part of a big update
- Events will come daily/weekly, then the bigger updates like for example introduction of underwear to the game, to the really big updates that release every 6-8 weeks (pet system for example)
- Game will be supported and updated as long as people keep playing it
- Rare has a detailed roadmap until the end of this calendar year
http://crewofthieves.com/news-en/sea-of-thieves-february-13th-news-summary/
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Did you read the preview articles? There's a decent chunk of stuff there, including endgame.
Beta seemed to be a decent representative example of the gameplay loop and one of the traders, though.
Yeah the gun fights and sword combat are a bit weak. I complained about the former a lot in the alpha surveys. Its not terrible but it can definitely be improved.
They are a bit shit to aim and there is zero hit feedback on any of the enemies or other players. Also none of the guns seem to offer any punch to them.
They are a bit shit to aim and there is zero hit feedback on any of the enemies or other players. Also none of the guns seem to offer any punch to them.
I am most definitely not at all jealous of the Pioneers getting to try all the new content before release.
No aim assist too, right? I'm usually fine with that, but I do think some measure of it would help clean it up.
You've been saying since the entirety of 2017 that the Alpha build is a representation of what the final game was going to be. I'm pretty sure that you're just salty about the fact that the game won't come with your traditional single player campaign according to both reddit and your comments on resetera. Calling it a "lackluster of a game" when the tech alpha was still going on doesn't make you very credible;
I've criticised the game multiple times and i'll still be there day one. Are there things that they need to fix/revamp/adjust in order to deliver on a better game experience? Absolutely and my direct impulse is to tweet people like Ted Timmins or Joe Neate about my idea or feedback.
Saying that they focused on adding stuff and not on improving stuff is a false statement. Compare the skellies day-one to now. Terminators who killed anything they saw even through objects. Compare the combat day-one to now. Compare the way of getting loot day-one to now.
You definitely need to get out of your bubble if you think that Rare doesn't listen to those who give constructive criticism.
It would be cool if each type of pet has some unique ability or function. Like your example above for parrots.
As much fun as it would be having parrots mimick your voice to trick enemies or pet monkeys stealing gold coins from other pirates if pets are going to be mtx only it's better to keep them with no gameplay benefits at all
Sorry it's been at least a year since I've boight a XBO game.
To confirm, I need to buy the game digitally on XBL (either through a digital BB pre order or directly on XBL) and this gives me the PC version as well? Physical would not?
How do I link my GT to my W10?
To confirm, I need to buy the game digitally on XBL (either through a digital BB pre order or directly on XBL) and this gives me the PC version as well? Physical would not?
How do I link my GT to my W10?
Imagine giving your parrot a message and sending it to a nearby boat? Or even a message in a bottle lol. That'd be really cool.
Whatever they do with combat, I hope it allows my wife(who rarely plays games) to be able to play effectively.
I've been away from Xbox since right after Halo 5 launched with shitty analog stick aim. Is this really a thing now for ALL xbox exclusive games?
Can i purchase my PC copy or Xbox One copy and get the other (or same copy technically i guess) for free? I'll be playing on PC and the wife will be on the Xbox One downstairs... do i only need one copy of the game for online play?!?!
I honestly think that's why their combat system is how it is. It promotes a more fun and casual experience IMHO. Rare's damn good... you know it is how it is because they want it to be. They've been working on this game for quite a few years now.
